Hi all, and welcome to the 2015 CQ Ranking Manager Game! This is the fifth edition of the game. Please see below for some history, basics, and more specific rules related to dates, dopers, etc.

History

The game was launched on December 8th 2010 by cyclingnews forum poster Hugo Koblet. His idea was to have a game where you build a cycling team from the website cqranking.com and its comprehensive numerical rankings of riders. What was originally meant to be a 25-team max competition that Hugo reserved the right to cancel if there was lack of interest became the most successful game in cyclingnews forum history, and has expanded to velorooms forums as well.

Hugo successfully ran the game for 3 years, and it bred various offshoots, such as a youth game, seasonal games (classics and GTs), emerging riders and riders in decline games. I took over organizing the main game last year when Hugo got too busy, and am evidently doing so again this year.

That is it for preamble. Let’s go through the more comprehensive set of rules:

Basics

The game is based on the point system developed by the website http://cqranking.com. Based on this system you will have to select a team of between 25 and 33 riders whose combined value doesn’t exceed 7500 points. 7500 points is a little bit under the average for the ProTour teams whose average for 2014 is 8396. 7500 is closest to the amount of points Belkin made this season, the 13th ranked of the 18 WT teams.

Your aim then is to select a team of riders who will increase their 2014 score the most during the 2015 season. The winner of the game is the one who has selected the team with the highest combined value when the game ends.

1. How the game works1.1. Start & FinishThe season starts when the first race giving CQ points is held (which is the Aussie National TT Championships on January 8th) and ends when the last major race (.1 or higher) is held. The winner will be crowned when the next update after the last major race is out.*

*An extension will be granted to the end of season if it is very close at the top. If any teams are within 100 points of the leader after the last major race, the season will be automatically extended until the final race of the year unless all teams within 100 points explicitly concede. As well, anyone in the top 10 can extend the season by PMing me a request to do so before the last major race starts.

(The reason for this rule is that although minor races go through December, it is rare to have a rider in the game participate in these races, so it is sensible to end the season when people are still generally watching cycling. But if it's a very close race, it's important to crown the person who picked the best team for the year.)

1.2 UpdatesEach week we will publish an update with a top 10 and a list of the high scorers and high jumpers. This will sometimes be by me, and sometimes by others – I will be setting a tentative schedule based on volunteers.

Riders who have been suspended for doping and had that affect their 2014 score will not be available simply for their 2014 score. Instead, a rider’s value will be equivalent to that of his last full season; or, if he has more recently had a (not full, due to suspension) season in which he has earned more points, that season represents his value. Riders who have been suspended by the UCI are on this list: http://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/CleanSport/16/67/91/20141205SanctionsADRVEN2.0_English.pdf.

Therefore, you can pick any rider you like, but if you want to take Mauro Santambrogio, for example, he won't cost the 0 points he earned in 2014 (his suspension ended on November 2nd). His suspension began in 2013 so his last 'full' season was 2012, in which he scored 344 points. However, since he scored more in his 'partial' 2013 season, his cost is instead the 822 points he scored in that season.

Hopefully the lists I've provided and the rules are clear enough, but if you make an error I will try to let you know if any of your submissions fall into this category.

2.2. Riders getting caught during the seasonIf you include a rider in your team who gets caught with his hands in the cookie jar, nothing happens right away. Your rider keeps his points unless the cqranking.com deletes his results before the end of the game.

Basically, the value of a rider on cqranking.com always stands.

3. Submitting your team

3.1. How do I?You pick between 25 and 33 riders whose combined value doesn’t exceed 7500 points and send the list to me by PM.

As I will manually have to include the teams into the Microsoft Excel file which keeps track of the scores, please be careful that you send your team to me based on the correct formula. I don’t take any responsibility for any error you might make. If I spot an error I will do my best to contact you but I can’t guarantee anything. Of course, if you have any questions feel free to ask either here in this thread or by sending a personal message.

The layout you need to use is this:

VALVERDE BELMONTE AlejandroCONTADOR VELASCO AlbertoEtc.

Nothing else. No points after the name. Also, be careful that there is no “space” after the name, because I will have to delete it manually.

To make things easier for both you and me I will link to a file for you to download in which you can type in your team and it will automatically show you the value of each rider as well as the aggregated value of your team. Then you will just have to copy your team (names only) directly from this file and send it to me.

Hopefully this clears any misunderstandings of a rider’s value as well as reduces the number of errors made in a team sent to me.

3.2. When do I?The first race of the season will start January 8, so I want to have your team in hand on January 6 at the latest. The deadline is 23:59 (CET) January 5th, so early January 6th for Aussies and sometime on January 5th for North Americans.

Please note that even though it feels as though the season is over, it’s actually not. There are still racing to be done and CQ points to be handed out that could affect the value of a rider you have picked. It is always possible that an obscure rider may score points in a small race at the end of season, or that CQ will adjust points for an earlier season race for whatever reason (eg. readjusting points for suspended dopers) Be mindful of these changes.

cqranking.com usually uploads the final update of the season on December 31, and the values in this update are the ones we’re using. However, the changes are usually very small so there’s no reason why you can’t start selecting your team already today!

**Disclaimer: ensuring your team is full of eligible riders and is on budget is your responsibility. If I notice you are over budget or have an ineligible rider I will send you a message, but if you don't get back to me in time, or I don't notice before the deadline, I will simply remove one rider to make your budget work. Obviously it is to your advantage to be able to choose all your riders, so please be diligent.**

Create Your Team

Hugo created a very helpful file in 2012, referred to above, that helps avoid any errors in calculation and helps ensure you are formatting your rider names correctly. I would encourage everyone to use this option, especially if you are not confident in your spreadsheet creating skills. Use the link below to create your team, then copy and paste the rider names to send to me by PM once you have it correct. Thank you. https://www.dropbox.com/s/v89ptm3do2l09cm/Create%20Your%20Team%202015.xls?dl=0

**note: the 'create your team' file has not yet been manually updated to include different scores for dopers as per rule 2.1, so it is currently wholly your responsibility to account for this.**

I think that about covers everything. If you have any questions or if I forgot to add or explain anything, please let me know.

Have fun and remember to visit cqranking.com! Without their great work it wouldn’t be possible to have this game.

This game is also being run through cyclingnews.com forums, and you can submit a team to me through either here or there. Updates will also be posted to both places.

This post is reserved to list submitted teams as they come in, as well as to list links to updates in the main thread as they are posted so that one does not have to hunt through umpteen pages to find them.

If you have submitted a team recently and don't see it appear within 24 hours, please message me to see what is up. Teams submitted in the first 48 hours after this thread go up might not be processed until the end of that period of time, but after that I will endeavour to check every day.

This is the final (unofficial) list of 152 participating teams, as of deadline time:

This post is reserved to create a schedule for updates. I will not always be free to do weekly updates, and this year we had some success spreading the responsibilities around. I thought that, rather than Pming people to remind them when they have to do updates, I would put a schedule out here in the thread so people could easily check when they think they are coming up. When I have more time in a few days, I will post a calendar of all the Mondays of the year and start to ask for volunteers to help. Stay tuned.

no, it's because the rules changed. Last year they said "All riders are available to choose; however, riders who have been suspended for doping and had that affect their 2013 score will not be available simply for their 2013 score." So it just said "suspended", not whether by UCI, Wada, Nada or whoever

...while it's based on the list of the UCI this year.

skidmark has also clarified that on cn:

"this means that riders that have been sanctioned by their national ADAs but for some reason not by UCI are available for their 2014 price. And yes, this means that two prominent, high-scoring 'ambiguous case' riders are available at their 2014 price."

no, it's because the rules changed. Last year they said "All riders are available to choose; however, riders who have been suspended for doping and had that affect their 2013 score will not be available simply for their 2013 score." So it just said "suspended", not whether by UCI, Wada, Nada or whoever

...while it's based on the list of the UCI this year.

skidmark has also clarified that on cn:

"this means that riders that have been sanctioned by their national ADAs but for some reason not by UCI are available for their 2014 price. And yes, this means that two prominent, high-scoring 'ambiguous case' riders are available at their 2014 price."

Yeah, apologies if this affects plans that have been made already. I had to choose a clear way forward and there are going to be a few bumps for people regardless of what I chose to do. My hope is that it's just clearer criteria for everyone.

Sorry jsg, I just overlooked this post, and I guess I didn't PM you back, which I have tried to do with everyone. I guess I'm just a little rusty at this early stage; I've got my game face on now though and am ready to go! Send me your teams, all!

Be sure to use it to check; I have also updated the link in post #1 of this thread to reflect these changes. Currently 4 of the 19 teams submitted before today have been put over 7500 points by these changes - all of these people will receive PMs today.

On a related note, if your team is over the 7500 limit (because of changes in CQ points if it was submitted before the final update, or because of miscalculation on your part) I will send you a PM and you will have the chance to change your team up to the deadline - since many teams are submitted in the final day I may not notice this until after the deadline if there's a backlog to process. So if you're handing in last minute, it's especially imperative that you be careful that you're using the right numbers. If your team is over and I haven't heard your changes by deadline time, I will simply remove one rider that brings you below 7500 while keeping you closest to it.

Be sure to use it to check; I have also updated the link in post #1 of this thread to reflect these changes. Currently 4 of the 19 teams submitted before today have been put over 7500 points by these changes - all of these people will receive PMs today.

On a related note, if your team is over the 7500 limit (because of changes in CQ points if it was submitted before the final update, or because of miscalculation on your part) I will send you a PM and you will have the chance to change your team up to the deadline - since many teams are submitted in the final day I may not notice this until after the deadline if there's a backlog to process. So if you're handing in last minute, it's especially imperative that you be careful that you're using the right numbers. If your team is over and I haven't heard your changes by deadline time, I will simply remove one rider that brings you below 7500 while keeping you closest to it.

Alright! Things are picking up, I expect the next few days to be not much other than entering teams etc. So far I've got 27 entries, 10 from VR and 17 from CN; gotta say, I really love the enthusiasm for the game at this site, that's a pretty good showing so far. Anyway, just had a moment of calm in between all the spreadsheet stuff I'm trying to do (plus picking my teams for the youth game and other CQ games coming up) and wanted to express my appreciation for you guys playing again this year. Let's try to spread the word in the last few days so we can maybe get some new players!